Awaiting sentence: Barry Sinclair, 50, was found guilty of one charge of breaking and entering

A man accused of being a serial
'sleepwatcher' who broke into women's homes to watch them in their sleep
has been found guilty of trespass but cleared of spying on women.

Barry
Sinclair, 50, was charged with two counts of breaking and entering and
five counts of voyeurism after police received numerous reports of a
'sleepwatcher'.

Over
the course of three years, police dealt with more than 20 incidents
where someone broke into the homes of women in south-end Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada, through unlocked doors or windows and watched them
sleep.

In some of the cases reported between 2008 and 2011, the women were touched before waking up to find a man looking at them.

Sinclair
was found guilty of one count of breaking and entering after his
cellphone was found in a mop bucket in a woman's apartment, CBC News reports.

But he was cleared of another break-in at a woman's flat a kilometre away on the same night.

A
court heard how the 22-year-old woman woke up to find a man staring at
her. But she picked a different man in a police line-up.

Denise
Smith, the Crown prosecutor, said: 'We felt we presented a strong
circumstantial case. Unfortunately the court was not satisfied that he
had also committed a break and enter at another location, just a
kilometre away and half an hour apart.'

Sinclair
was also charged with voyeurism after Halifax Regional Police said they
found a video in his dresser drawer showing women unaware they were
being 'watched' as they undressed.

Trial: Sinclair was cleared of voyeurism at Halifax Court

Judge Michael Wood said whoever
made the video is guilty but Wood was not satisfied it was Sinclair and
cleared him of the remaining charges at Halifax provincial court on
Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutor Ms Smith added:
'Short of the police catching somebody in the act with the videotape …
there would be no way of ever beating that standard of proof. We felt
that it was sufficient that the videotape was found in his possession.'

Sinclair will be sentenced in February for breaking and entering.

Police
say they are still investigating numerous other cases involving a
suspect dubbed the Sleepwatcher and urged for residents to continue
being diligent in securing their doors and windows.